


If We Were Aliens

by SeahorseWithLaptop



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Road Trip, M/M, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-03
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-08-19 05:41:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8192291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeahorseWithLaptop/pseuds/SeahorseWithLaptop
Summary: We're camping town to town and soaking up faces and there's a lot of sex beneath the open sky and we pretend that we're from another planet and giggle in quiet conspiracy with the stars.





	

I didn't think Minseok had a wandering bone in his body when I dragged him out the door, talking more than I ever had to keep him from second-guessing it. But I didn't even want to remember where we'd been or where we'd been going. My art needed transience, and I could tell Minseok needed it, too. He had a solidness to him that fed off motion.  _Kim Jongin,_ he used to say to me,  _You're like a balloon who can tie your string to whoever you want._ So I took him in my old Chevy and our first stop was a dusty one-road town a couple miles outside the city where a girl with black-rimmed eyes dyed his hair blue when I whispered in her ear and gave her five extra dollars, and then I drew the way she stood while she did it, becaus she stuck her hip out funny and I wanted to keep that picture forever. Minseok didn't like cameras, so I had to draw everything.

 _Where are we going,_ he asked. I shrugged. Now that we were on the road, I was light and I twirled my pencil so the pink eraser whirled in and out of the edges of my vision as we barreled down the flat highway. I didn't care. Minseok stopped asking eventually, and turned east. We ate out of taco trucks while we were still on the coast, and I met a cute redhead who gave me a blowjob while her dad was getting coffee from some famous coffeehouse in San Francisco. That was the town where I did my laundry. I wondered if I was looking for something, or being reckless, or if I was just plain lost.

We picked up Kyungsoo somewhere south, where it got hot in the day and cold in the night. Minseok pulled the truck into the lot of a hardware store in a medium-sized town to buy some blankets for the nights, and I slid into the shade of the building to light a cigarette. My hair was greasy then—I remember wondering why he approached me because his hair was perfectly styled.  _I quit,_ Kyungsoo said. He was hiding from the sun, too. So I offered him my cigarette. Kyungsoo was in the middle of an epiphany or something—he must have been, because I felt like he was my family. In ten minutes I had him telling me that just a summer might make him sure about everything. He didn't seem to believe me when I told him sureness was probably overrated. In the end, Minseok convinced him to come. It was probably his solidness. After Kyungsoo got over the blue, which was still electric.

We turned west when we got too close to Mexico, and I must have tried a thousand times to draw Kyungsoo's voice before we got to Las Vegas. He could tell stories that had me laughing so hard and so suddenly that Minseok would jump in the driver's seat, and I'd worry for our safety. Kyungsoo asked how we were paying for any of this. I said I used to sell my art and Minseok has a big inheritance. I think Kyungsoo felt bad that he wasn't contributing. Me and Minseok agreed to only use credit cards, so Kyungsoo couldn't see the physical evidence of the bills he wasn't paying passing from hand to hand. We thought maybe that would lighten the burden on him. 

Sehun arrived in Las Vegas. Minseok and Kyungsoo decided they wanted to go see the fountains that changed colors, even though I was nervous, because I couldn't draw that, and it was a lot of pressure for my memory to preserve. He was just sitting on the stone fence, judging people. I was feeling pissy.  _You can't possibly tell I smell that bad from that far away_ , I said to him. His mouth popped out of its pursed expression and his eyes widened. Now that his face wasn't screwed up, the lights from the fountain and the streetlights and the stars were really very flattering on the angles of his face.  _I couldn't,_ he said.

Kyungsoo was interested. When Kyungsoo was interested his voice got all deep and I called him Kyungvader.  _What are you doing up there, then?_ he asked. Sehun looked like he was almost annoyed, but Kyungsoo interested him, too.  _I was hoping to get spotted as a model up here,_ he replied levelly. Minseok guffawed but me and Kyungsoo were too suprised to laugh. 

I wandered away with Minseok to dip our feet in the water—which was warmer than I'd hoped it would be, like the lights of the hotel it reflected could actually heat it—but Kyungsoo stayed behind, and their deep voices Mingled like a background record lost in the spray of water. They were still there an hour later, and Sehun was coming, and I felt a new  _verve_ in Kyungsoo. Could I draw it?

Minseok drove. All the time. I don't know why—we all offered—but he seemed to slip into it like a trance and then become capable of only the most topical or the deepest conversations. I checked, though: he didn't speed ever, or swerve. I took the passenger seat, and took it upon myself to choose the music and go into the gas stations to buy our snacks. In the interest of our health, I tried to pepper our meals of doritos with sunflower seeds and those nature valley bars that screamed soccer mom healthiness. 

It only took a day for Sehun to fall asleep with his head on Kyungsoo's shoulder, and I sketched their outline before Miseok drove over a pothole and Sehun woke up, flushed, and ran hand through his blonde hair sheepishly. I could understand Kyungsoo's delight at making Sehun's face fold into a smile because when it did even Minseok grinned, teeth and all. 

We camped in a field. Then we camped in a barn, on some blankets laid over some straw. It still smelled faintly of animals, in that comforting, sawdust-ey way. The stars winked at us through the big window above us and I might as well have been on a feather mattress.  _We're practically not part of the world, it feels like,_ Sehun said.

 _We're human, though,_ Minseok replied.  _We're so human._

 _Observant,_ I deadpanned. Then I said, _if it's just the four of us, we could be anything. we could be floating in the middle of nowhere. we could be on one of those stars._

 _If i came down from one of those stars, I don't see why taking over the world would be first on my agenda,_ Kyungsoo said quietly. His voice didn't echo because everything was wood and skin and wool, but it was like a blanket itself. 

 _If you were on one of those stars, you'd want to be right where you are,_ replied Sehun. I knew that Sehun was resting his head on Kyungsoo's shoulder. I agreed with him, about alien Kyungsoo. He'd probably want to be right where human Kyungsoo was. 

 _Maybe I was swapped as a baby, and I have an alien dick,_ Kyungsoo repied.

Minseok huffed, unamused. I laughed. We were warm and full and the sunset tonight had been the orangest I'd ever seen. I'd want to be me if I were an alien, too. 

Minseok followed a girl home in Denver. He had a cell phone so I wasn't so worried; he was probably tired of us, anyway. I didn't really want to leave Kyungsoo and Sehun yet. Their romance was infatuating; I was in love with it. We kept the truck outside the city, on a dusty plateau that looked across a sweeping valley spotted with a few twinkling lights of campers. Kyungsoo didn't care that I was watching when he kissed Sehun in the backseat. I had a habit of sitting backward in the passenger seat, my knees folded up against the back of the seat, sketchbook flat across them. Sehun melted beneath him. Sehun opened his mouth right up for him. Sehun's body trembled at Kyungsoo's attention. Kyungsoo kissed him for a few minutes with swollen, plump lips, then pulled away with delight dancing away in his eyes. The corners of his mouth pulled back into a heart-shaped smile. Sehun fell in love.

* * *

I took us out of that hot backseat not because I didn't love it, but because it wasn't close enough to the sky; and Sehun followed me anyway. We climbed into the bed, where Sehun had squirreled away some pillows and blankets along the trip. They were soft—they were meant for pets. That's what Minseok had found, in the store where I'd met Jongin. Jongin stayed in the front seat, but his eyes followed us. I knew it was because we were beautiful. Sehun wasn't mad at him and I wasn't either. I took a moment to hope for a night that was cloudy in the future. On that night, Jongin would have a purpose in those dreamy eyes, and he'd be in the city like Minseok.

Sehun was too innocent for either of us. I thought it was ironic because I met him in Sin City. I'd brought out my little bottle of lube I didn't think I'd use. Sehun settled himself cautiously in my lap and closed his eyes when I squeezed his thighs. He let breathy puffs of air into the night when I kissed his neck. I was a painter of goosebumps as I ran my hands up his sides and removed his t-shirt. It had been too long and he kissed me again. I smiled into his mouth and he whined. It vibrated in his belly and reminded him of his dick, hard in his pants. We rubbed there for a while and he took my shirt off. He sucked a hickey right above my nipple and it felt like he was sucking my soul out of my body.

I flipped him over and took his socks off, then his pants. I wondered if the stars were singing us a symphony then realized it was the crickets. The breeze was encouraging us to get closer to each other's heat. Nature conspired for us. I sucked at the head of his dick through his briefs, and he wriggled the way long people do. His voice caught. He shoved the briefs down himself. The scent of cigarette smoke drifted toward us; Jongin had lit up. I prepped him slowly because I liked the way Sehun's voice sounded rising above the crickets. It belonged in the garden of eden.

I'd taken my time and Sehun was clawing at my skin. He liked the romantic shit but he liked sex too, and the breeze had done a number on his pale skin. I gathered him in my arms and sank into him in one thrust and then had to pretend I was made of stone. I didn't want to cum right there. When he rolled his hips against me, he whispered,  _go, Kyungsoo,_ and the  _o's_ fell off at the end as I began a fluid pace that was soon a fast slap of skin. I panted onto his shoulder, where his collarbone stuck out. I held myself up on the soft blankets. I fucked him into the back of the truck, out of my mind and probably out of his, the heat mocking the breeze curling around us. Stuttering moans were fucked out of Sehun's mouth with every thrust. I wrapped my hand around his dick and tried to be tender but Sehun was gone like that. I took ahold of his hips and didn't hold back, not when Sehun threw his head back, and not when I came and felt myself exploding into him. I wanted him to feel that, for some reason. Maybe because we never talked about the future. Only the past, and mostly the present.

The next morning, early, Minseok found us with a blanket thrown over us, but we were sticky. Jongin was smelly and hadn't gone shopping in a while, so I didn't have any food to make. We decided to get out of the city before dealing with any of it. There was a campground a few miles from our vantage point of the valley, and we showered outside under a pale pink sunrise, flicking water at each other and laughing with our bellies until our sides hurt and our cheeks tingled. Minseok seemed more engaged than usual. I asked him about the girl. He said she was nice and boring. Korean and missionary with the lights out. Then Minseok grinned.  _Then I took my shirt off,_ he said,  _and she said we could keep the lights on._ Jongin and Sehun played like real kids.

After breakfast at a diner with a lot of cheesy _home sweet home_ signs and an overweight cook, we thought we were off for the day. It was a little overcast and Sehun put his hands inside his t-shirt like he was still a kid. I tried to warm him up, but he just tried to make out. I told him that wasn't nice with two other people in the car. Minseok said he agreed. Jongin smoked.

I asked if we could stop at a Harley-Davidson store somewhere in Kansas and Minseok stopped because he had to piss. I bought me and Sehun leather jackets with the last of my savings, and I didn't even feel guilty for not putting it towards the community funds. Sehun smiled for the rest of the day, running a slender finger up and down the zipper of my jacket. I allowed him some kissing, and then, in the cocoon of leather they created in the backseat, I said, _Sehun, I love you._ It was quick, quiet, and unmistakable. Sehun's face didn't stop glowing.

Sehun replied,  _I think I love you too._ Then he broke down giggling and Minseok asked what was so funny about over-poaching in Africa (that's what was on the radio). I wrapped my hand around the back of his neck and pulled his ear to my mouth and said,  _I'll make you know you love me. You'll never forget it._

I fucked him properly in the sheets of our own motel room that night. The walls were thin and the lights were so low they glowed red. Then I fucked him again. I came in and out of proper lucidity, here watching my own hand slide down the curve of his ass and down his back, feeling him clench around me. Next he was lying on top of me half-asleep and sticky. Next he was bouncing on my lap, his head thrown back to thank the moon through the dusty window for my dick. 

Luhan was a hitchhiker in Illinois. His thumb stuck out weird. Jongin let out a surprised shout and Minseok almost swerved—almost. Jongin begged so animatedly as they rolled up to him that Minseok finally rolled to a stop. It was a sunny day and Luhan was charismatic and handsome, even in his disheveled flannel. He went around to the driver's window, and spoke to Minseok in a low, musical voice no one could hear but Minseok. Cars whooshed by like an endless merry-go-round. Finally, Jongin whined that they'd been talking for a  _long_ time. Minseok seemed to snap out of a trance.  _Move over_ , he said to us in the back. We made room for Luhan. 

Luhan lived in Chicago. He had a destination. So now the journey had an end, and it was closer than any of us expected.

Except for a while, all four of us could ride in the bed of the truck and feel like we were the Most Special while Luhan drove. We stopped in every town we came upon. We explored like kings surveying our land. We played hide and seek in the streets. Sehun fucked me. Jongin drew me and Sehun when we were asleep. I look really young. Younger than I feel. It was a good drawing, though—he added to it with paint from a big warehouse we found on Interstate 55, tucked behind a field of corn.

Jongin drew Minseok, too. Then he drew Luhan, half his face shadowed, half in the sun, and it took my breath away, and I told him to come with me to the University of Chicago so we could show them what he could do. So we did. He asked if we wanted his truck because he wasn't going to need that old piece of junk if he was going to go to college anyway. Minseok was going to work for Luhan, so he didn't need it. 

I was waiting for something, though. 

We slept in a motel room that night with Jongin, and Sehun just curled up into me. He was thinking really hard. I wanted to smooth the crease between his eyebrows.  _What is it, jagi?_ I asked. I smoothed the crease between his eyebrows. 

 _I love you,_ he said to me. 

 _That's not so bad,_ I replied. I wondered if our voices carried in that little motel room; if Jongin could hear us. Jongin got up and shrugged on his flannel. He said he was going out and not to worry about him. He said there was actually a girl whose number he had who lived in Chicago. We stared at him until he was gone. We probably should have said bye, but he knew we loved him.

 _I know I love you_ , Sehun whispered again, as if to himself, as if I hadn't seen the importance in what he had said. He seemed more troubled now than ever.  _I know I love you too,_ I responded, confused. 

 _I don't want the summer to end,_ Sehun said.

I thought about that for a long time. I stroked his hair and his soul and thought. Then I said,  _I hear Louisiana's hot year round. I'm not going to leave you, you know._

* * *

 _Don't you have any pictures to put up?_ My roommate asked. He was tall and had a big smile and was photogenic. His wall was covered in photos. I dug into my small bag of worldly possessions, mostly drawings. A picture slipped out. 

 _Guess so._ There was the four of us, happy aliens, in the back of our pickup truck. Kyungsoo was smiling, and I was shouting—probably at Luhan, who I assumed was taking the picture. The other one—yes, there were two—Luhan must have snapped it as we were crossing the street in one of the towns we stopped at. I smiled. At least I knew how to live without doing anything else for one summer.

* * *

seahorse's note: i know it's a weird story and a weird format since it's first person and i'm just sorry.


End file.
